Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Education Ecosystem: Building Future-Ready Citizens w/ Anita Huggins
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What does it truly take to build a premier school district? Superintendent Anita Huggins reveals the transformation underway at Charleston County School District with remarkable candor and vision that extends far beyond typical education rhetoric.
After nearly three decades serving Charleston's students—first as a middle school English teacher, then through various leadership roles—Huggins brings a uniquely grounded perspective to her superintendency. Her "power of one degree" philosophy isn't just administrative jargon; it's yielding tangible results with remarkable academic gains across grades 3-8, a projected 90% graduation rate, and 85% college and career readiness metrics.
Most compelling is Huggins' recognition that schools alone cannot solve educational challenges. Through the innovative LOCAL initiative (Linking Opportunities to Classroom And Learners), she's systematically connecting businesses, faith groups, and community organizations directly to schools with specific needs. This ecosystem approach has already eliminated lunch debt, provided crucial supplies, created internships, and established mentorship programs—proving that collective community investment yields powerful outcomes.
The conversation reveals surprising innovations within CCSD: a student cabinet providing direct feedback on issues like budgets and dress codes; universal pre-K collaborations with private providers; employee childcare centers addressing teacher retention; and Centers for Advanced Studies experiencing 50% enrollment growth as students pursue industry certifications. Perhaps most impressive, Charleston has achieved what many districts can't—starting the school year with certified teachers in every classroom, two years running.
Ready to help shape Charleston's educational future? Visit the LOCAL website to explore partnership opportunities or connect directly with Superintendent Huggins. As she powerfully states, "Public education is a moral imperative"—and Charleston County is demonstrating how a community-wide commitment to excellence can transform that imperati
This is a grounded guide for founders, contractors, agency owners, manufacturers, and service leaders across Charleston and beyond who want a no-nonsense path to an exit. We share red flags that can sink deals, the role of local market knowledge, and how Viking’s success-based model aligns incentives. Join us, get practical next steps, and walk away knowing exactly how to make your future sale smoother.
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Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
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Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Committee | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Benjamin Nesvold | Co-host | MPCC President | Edward Jones
Meet Superintendent Anita Huggins
Speaker 1Hi everybody. I'm Rebecca Emols. I'm the Executive Director of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, so excited today to be a co-host along with Mike Thompson.
Speaker 2Hello folks. Yes, of course, rumble Advertising here and your co-host. We are super geeked out right now because we have somebody we say special all the time, but super, super special this time. Sorry, mayor, we always say you're a special too, but this one is quite special. We've got Anita Huggins in the house, our superintendent of the Charleston School District. Say hello, anita.
Speaker 3It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I'm not sure how special I am specifically in comparison to the mayor, but I appreciate those kind of words Of course, of course, everybody's special, everybody's special, everybody's special special that comes on the show.
Speaker 2But, anita, you're kind of on top of the list right now.
Speaker 3Anita, where are you coming from? Are you from?
Speaker 2here, I'm from off. I'm from off, but not too far off. Okay, it's so cute how you say that Okay, I'm sorry, you're from off. I've never heard it like that before.
Speaker 3Just up the road a piece. I grew up outside of Loras, south Carolina, in Horry County. I went to Green Sea Floyd's High School where I was raised in the middle of a field and I had a younger sister and we grew up there and we're really happy to be raised in that environment. We learned lots of things about hard work and dedication and commitment and the value of a public education. Two really great parents who valued education made sure we were in school every day, never missed a day of school K-12. Yes, my mother did make me go sick. She did dose me up right regularly. She was a teacher and got married and moved here to Charleston and we've made this our home. We've raised our three children here and in the public schools here in Charleston.
Speaker 2When did you move here and what was your first job?
Speaker 3So we've been here almost 30 years. My first job was an English teacher over at Fort Johnson Middle School on James Island. I was really excited that someone in Charleston, south Carolina, would hire a country girl from Loras, south Carolina, to teach in the city quote unquote and I fell in love with middle school there. I always thought I'd teach high school advanced placement English, even with this accent, but nonetheless my first job offer was in a middle school and I absolutely loved it and from there I began working with teachers, mentoring teachers, and somehow here I am today.
Speaker 1My mother was retired public school, middle school teacher seventh grade algebra.
Speaker 3Oh, wow.
Speaker 1I know it takes a special person.
Speaker 3It does In middle school.
Speaker 1It's a challenging year for those kids.
Speaker 3You either love middle school or you really don't. I used to tell parents don't worry, you'll eventually get your kids back, they will come back to you. But middle school is such a special time and I fell in love with the middle school age child and that's really helped me raise my own three children through those middle school years. They can be quite challenging, as you know.
Speaker 2Yeah, and your kids went through the school system, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3They did All three of them and they go to school.
Speaker 2Where are they now?
Education Journey and Family Background
Speaker 3Yes, so our oldest all three of our children started at Bell Hall Elementary in Mount Pleasant. We were zoned for that school. And our oldest daughter now is at Clemson. She's a rally cat. She'll be a junior next year. That means she's a dancer. She danced her whole life. And then our middle son, asher, just graduated from Lucy Beckham. He'll go to the University of Virginia in the fall, which means I'll be working Until I'm 135 somewhere.
Speaker 2Same.
Speaker 3He's a wahoo. He's going to be a who For sure I'm a hokey.
Speaker 1We have no idea what wahoos are or hokeys are, but go ahead.
Speaker 3I hear there's a formidable Bit of a rivalry, a bit of a rivalry there In the USC Sort of Sort of. Absolutely. And then I have a rising sophomore also at Lucy Beckham for the coming year.
Speaker 2So all three of them have gone through the Charleston County Public. Schools Rising sophomore. I'm not ready for that. My boys are nine, going into fourth grade.
Speaker 3You'll be fine, You'll make it Again.
Speaker 1You're going to go to middle school and then you'll be like, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3High school no problem, no problem whatsoever. It's going to be great.
Speaker 2Mike Talk to you about the power of one degree, and what does that mean to you?
Speaker 3So our theme for this year really is around taking the system to the next level. I believe firmly that Charleston County School District can be a premier district it really already is but when we look nationally, I think it can be at the top of the list and I think the public Is going to be really proud Of the results that we share with them when they're released in the fall by the state. We've shown significant increases across the board Grades 3-8 in reading and math. We've seen increases in Algebra 1, us History and English2. Our graduation rate Is going to be right at 90%. Our college and career readiness rate will be around 85 percent. Again, we'll share all the great work going on in our classrooms. When the state formally tells us that we can, so that we believe, to take the system to the next level, it's going to take a little bit of extra effort from everyone, including me.
Speaker 1Well, congratulations on that. I know that's been part of your vision for 2027, the three pillars of those areas that you just discussed. I also had read when you did an interview not only being college and career ready, but being ready as citizens Absolutely Can you talk about that I'm happy to.
Speaker 3Our goal really pre-K through 12 is to get kids ready for whatever they want to do when they leave our system, which includes being productive citizens being able to collaborate and communicate and think critically about the world. If we've not done that, we've not readied our youngsters to be productive with great people like you right now.
Speaker 1So I love that that you talked about being able to communicate and collaborate, because I do think that COVID had such a negative impact in some of those formative years for our students and I think now, as you know, this is building business.
Speaker 1That's our podcast. So, as people who are leaders in the business and the community, we recognize so much the importance of having our youth be able to have those strong communication skills. But all of that helps provide that those foundations literacy and algebra readiness and, as you talked about, some of the career and college readiness that's so important so that they can communicate with others and be successful with whatever they want to do.
Speaker 3Absolutely, our goal is to make sure kids can read and write and they can add. But at the end of the day, we often talk about it not necessarily mattering the level of your intellect if you can't communicate things to others and work with others to produce outcomes and solutions for problems that plague whatever system you're in. So that communication piece is critically, critically important to people being able to be successful.
Speaker 2Talk about the student cabinet. That was an exciting thing I heard about. I would probably not have been a part of that, but I want to have my kids be a part of that.
Speaker 3Well, you know, I'm sure your kids could be eligible for that.
Speaker 3Mike, student voice and student agency is critically important in our system If you think about who our primary stakeholders are.
Speaker 3In fact, they are our kids. They are our kids nearly 51,000 of them and so we brought in, for the first time in a really long time, a student cabinet this year that consisted of two middle and high schoolers from across the district, and they came in once a month and sat down with me and we talked about matters relative to the district of which we thought they would have particular interest. And it would really surprise the listening public, the viewing public and you to know that they ask us questions about things like the budget. They wanted to know about the budget, so we created Monopoly money with my face and the CFO's face on it and widely distributed it to them, and we did a couple of exercises with them. But they have given us input on things like dress code, cell phones. Things really are important to them and when you listen to your most valuable commodity, which happens to be our students, it really helps you formulate systems that serve the system best.
Speaker 1So we have with school improvement councils, we have student representatives. I love the fact that you've elevated them to the district level, so to speak.
Speaker 3Absolutely. It's really important for me to hear from all stakeholder groups and to me they really are forgive me board they really are the most important. We hear from parents, we hear from pastors, we hear from business folks, we hear from the chamber, and all of you are all.
The Power of One Degree Vision
Speaker 2The adults are really important, but the kids are most important, but you do bring in that transparent communication with the public.
Speaker 3Absolutely. That is critically important to me as a superintendent. This is my community. I've lived here for nearly three decades. My kids have gone to school here. I've really grown up in the school system myself, as a teacher, as a principal, all the things relative to education. And one thing, after nearly three decades in the system, that I know has plagued the system through no one's fault is a lack of communication or transparency Again, not intentionally for people to really understand what's happening, why it's happening and how they can work with us to make it better in cases where they might not understand. So we've done a lot of different things and Michelle Mills, our executive associate of communications, has helped with that through social media, through regular communications, through opportunities like this. So thank you again for having me. I hope your ratings don't go down. They're going up.
Speaker 2I'm just saying I hope your ratings don't go down. They're going up. I'm just saying They'll be up. They go down from here. Rebecca, what do you got?
Speaker 1So I want to talk about the importance of local. Oh, that's great. So let's talk about local, sure.
Speaker 3So local is an initiative we've launched in the last six months linking opportunities to classroom and learners, and it really is a way to build an ecosystem of support for kids. Okay, just very bluntly and honestly again, in a commitment to transparent communication, if the school district could have done the work itself in elevating the achievement of all of its kids and I mean all of its kids, special education students, children who speak English as a second language, pupils in poverty, we would have done it decades ago. No educator ever gets into education and says I want kids to leave still not reading, right. So we've recognized that it's going to take people outside of the system to help make the system better.
Speaker 3And local is the opportunity for businesses, sororities, church, faith-based groups, small groups of whatever means to come together and say, hey, here's what we're good at and here's how we can help. So we've had all sorts of businesses who've come to us churches again faith, our faith based partners and said here's what we can do. We're this small or we're this large, and where can you utilize this best? And each school has a profile and they've told us what two or three things they think they need for students, parents and their teachers and we've tried to be very strategic in how we've plugged in support systems to help schools and it's really been quite remarkable. We've been able to open up opportunities for kids to have internships and work-based experiences, and some of our partners with the chamber have done that We've been able to eradicate school lunch debt in some instances We've been able to provide school supplies and other things.
Speaker 3We've been able to provide mentorships for teachers through this partnership. But we're always looking to grow it because we still need more. We still need more.
Speaker 1So how can the viewer, listener learn more about it? How can they get immediately plugged in?
Speaker 3So we have a website? That's a great question. I'm dedicated solely to local, where we have listed each of the school's profile sheets and businesses can see that. There's also a way to email us directly, but the public always has full access to me. I'm a little crazy and started a Facebook page recently which has been quite rewarding to me as a human. But they can always email me directly. I'm happy to respond. It may be an early morning email, but I'll get back to folks.
Speaker 1And so as a chamber, we have also made the commitment to local in a variety of ways. We are having our 15th Annual Business and Community Expo September 18th Awesome and this year we added a component a job recruitment opportunity. So CCSD is participating in that.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 1So those of you out there, I highly recommend you check it out. Charleston County School District will be there. They can talk all about the job openings available.
Speaker 3That's wonderful.
Speaker 1Yeah, we're really excited about that. Actually, just yesterday, we put together 285 backpacks of school supplies.
Speaker 3That is amazing.
Speaker 1We have wonderful, generous members in our chamber and we delivered those to St James Santee.
Speaker 3Oh, that's fantastic. I know Principal McMillan will be so excited about that. In fact, I may have an email from her right now with excitement. That's just wonderful. And again, that's evidence of a community that really wants to wrap around its children, recognizing that public education really is the key to making communities the best they can be.
Speaker 1I'm sorry you talked about internships. So throughout the district, not just in East Cooper, there's Center for Advanced Studies. That's another opportunity for kids to become career ready. Absolutely, and the business community. If they haven't known about that, what are the Center for Advanced Studies?
LOCAL: Linking Opportunities to Classrooms
Speaker 3The Centers for Advanced Studies are premier centers in West Ashley, in North Charleston and here in Mount Pleasant. That offers children, students, the opportunity to complete pathways in whatever area of college and career readiness that interests them. We have, I think, over 700 certifications that students can leave those centers with ready for the world of work, and we're constantly. In fact we met on this. Just yesterday I met with Rich Gordon, who's our executive director of our CTE programs, and he and I talked about how those programs need to be ever changing. I talked about how those programs need to be ever-changing, dependent upon the community that we live in response to that and the world today and the world at large, so we're really excited this.
Speaker 3Rich might be upset with me, but we believe our enrollment will increase by 50% next year in these centers.
Speaker 1It really is remarkable.
Speaker 3Michelle's working on that with us right now but, it's a testament to our dedication to getting kids again ready. Not everybody wants to go to college, and that's okay. We want them ready to do whatever they want to do to be successful.
Speaker 2Thank you for bringing that up, Rebecca. The CAS program is really, really cool. It's got my interest as well, as far as I'm a film producer so a. Tv producer adds that type of thing. I own an advertising agency but my part is the production side of things Sure sure, and so I've been talking with Justin and Jeff over there at CAS Wando.
Speaker 3Oh good.
Speaker 2And I'm going to raise my hand. I'm going to become a substitute teacher. Oh, that's fantastic, Molly, yeah yeah, and we have somebody in common too. I was going to save this for the end, but let me just tell you a little guess who this is. He's very grumpy, but he's the sweetest man you'll ever meet. He'll do anything for you.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2But he's an ex-referee. He's an ex-vice president of Wando, anything. I know there's a lot of vice principals out there, vice principals of Wando.
Speaker 3It's coming to me. A little grumpy Starts with an.
Speaker 2S. He's my direct neighbor. He won't let me mow the lawn on the weekends Because of Clemson games.
Speaker 3Well then, he is really grumpy. Oh my gosh. Now how do I not know?
Speaker 2this I'm old. His wife's name is Val.
Speaker 3How do I not know?
Speaker 2this Steve Leggett.
Speaker 3Steve, when you said X, that's because I thought Maybe he wasn't in the system anymore.
Speaker 2He's still in the system.
Speaker 1And Steve is just wonderful and he's great and I'm sorry, he's your neighbor.
Speaker 3You're grumpy grumpy, grumpy Steve. In fact, I just saw Steve two days ago. He's fantastic.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, but he's a big proponent of getting me into the system. Absolutely Well, I'd be interested in talking to you more about that. Oh well, I consider this my interview.
Speaker 3Well then, get the rubric out, Michelle.
Speaker 2You're hired.
Speaker 1There you go, yes.
Speaker 3But again, we need folks like you who can pour into our kids in different ways and get them ready.
Speaker 2We were talking with Justin and Jeff over there to maybe even edit these podcasts that we're recording right now we're a nonprofit.
Speaker 3That would be fantastic. Little things like that that could give the students some real life experiences.
Speaker 2Real life experiences Maybe use membership spotlights with that type of thing. We're talking about all that stuff. And then North Charleston High as well. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 3Right, the North area would be just fantastic to plug in. They have that media center over there. The kids have, in fact, principal Brown. They've actually produced a film that we showed several months ago to our principals. A lot of things going on, so we need to talk more about that, mike.
Speaker 2Yes, ma'am For sure, no problem Not going anywhere.
Speaker 3Okay, steve Leggett, we are excited you're listening.
Speaker 1I'm just saying and I also want to bring up we've talked a lot about the kids being college and career ready. As a mother, I know how important it is for, when they're little, to get them ready their early childhood component. What is the school district doing for those little four-year-olds?
Speaker 3That is a great, great question, Rebecca. Early readiness public is really key to the future success. We know that not all parents have that ability or that means, and so we're here to help. We offer as much pre-K in our schools right now as we have the means to do. Ideally, pre-K would be universal.
Speaker 1I would love that. Oh, my gosh as would I.
Centers for Advanced Studies Expansion
Speaker 3So if the governor's listening, we would love that here in Charleston, it would be fantastic. But in the interim I'll tell you what we've done in just the last year. And we started here in Mount Pleasant because of the number of private preschool providers and the number of students on the waiting list for pre-K here in Mount Pleasant. And we've expanded that now to working with all of our private preschool providers in Charleston County to provide education to them, to provide collaboration for them, to provide site visits to and for them. So, for example, I think one of their recent visits was out to Laurel Hill Primary so they could see what was happening in that space.
Speaker 3Because until we have enough money and resources and space For universal pre-K, we have to get out into the community, into that ecosystem, work with our. It really is not a competition, this is about kids. So we have to work with our private preschool providers To make sure that together we are readying kids for kindergarten, which we're excited about. So we have to work with our private preschool providers to make sure that together we are readying kids for kindergarten, which you know we're excited about thousands of kids on August the 12th joining us for kindergarten. So we're doing our best, rebecca, to get kids ready.
Speaker 1I love that. Everything from early childhood to college, career readiness, building citizens for the future. I mean that is why the school district is a Charleston original.
Speaker 3Right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2And I have been.
Speaker 1I've lived here 30 years. I'm just so excited to see where the school district is now. I'm really excited and looking forward to see where it's going.
Speaker 3Well, that's very kind of you. We've got a great team of people. We have premier teachers in the district.
Speaker 3They really my job doesn't really matter, and I want the public to really know that I'm genuine. I mean, I I'm honored to serve in this season. I'm I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve in this season. I love the work, but at the end of the day, it's the teachers in the classrooms across the school district, in collaboration with the parents at home, that make the biggest difference for kids, and I want them to know that I value them as one of them. I'll always be an educator. My mother was an educator. I tried to not be an educator, but I couldn't get it out of my blood. Um, they are doing the real work that really makes this a premier system, along with the principals and the leadership of their schools yeah, you mentioned laurel hill.
Speaker 2Jason simms over there does a great job.
Speaker 3He has a podcast too, by the way, does he? Yes, he does you know, know, he's an author, he's all things.
Speaker 2He's an angel. I'm not sure how angelic he is. Well, they did a lot for us.
Speaker 3Well, the last time I saw him, his halo was tilting a little bit.
Speaker 2It might be a little tilted, but in my eyes the man's an angel.
Speaker 3Jason Sims is just wonderful. I think he taught kindergarten for 17 years. He's a tremendous leader in this district and there are lots of folks just like him, but he's doing a great job.
Speaker 2Now we're up to Tiffany Henderson. We're going up the ladder here. Yeah, she's fantastic too.
Speaker 3Her mother, jean Sawicki, was a colleague of mine. You might remember, jean, she was the principal of Moultrie at one time. She was excellent. Tiffany has that in her blood as well.
Speaker 2I've always loved that school. Yes, it's wonderful. They love the whole four house thing. I still don't know the names.
Speaker 3No, it's the Ron Clark system. I do Scary for you. I've been around a little bit. It's the Is it. Bindi? I was about to say is it Bindi? There are four different houses, yeah, Green red.
Speaker 2it's midday, my mind is just bad about midday. But my point is they love the point system, they love the competition, they love the different events that they had surrounding that and the whole Harry Potter type of house thing is really cool.
Speaker 3It's built on that Ron Clark, that Harry Potter thing, and we have premier schools here east of the Cooper and our goal is to make sure that all of our neighborhood schools, whether they're here in east cooper, out in ravenel, up in north charleston, are schools where all parents want to send their kids um, so that kids leave again ready for whatever's next, even if that's middle school or college at usc there you go, go tigers do we have?
Speaker 1do we have time to talk about the education foundation? Absolutely those who are yes I want to help, but I simply. You know my day goes by quickly. Where can they send money?
Teacher Support and Leadership Priorities
Speaker 3I am so glad you asked, rebecca. We are excited that we just launched, or we just announced the launch of the Education Foundation, which is a 501c3. It will have its own governing board and all the things associated with foundations whereby businesses and philanthropic partners can give to support creative outside-of-the-box thinking about how we do business. You may have seen last year, for example, that we piloted an attendance incentive program. Some people were for it, some people were against it.
Speaker 1That's the weighted student.
Speaker 3Well, it's a little different than the weighted to student funding, but it was where we actually provided compensation okay to to to kids and families that were present in school every day, and you would be amazed at the tremendous results that we garnered through that. But it's the. This foundation would allow us, when the gof won't necessarily support certain things we want to do, to have funding to do so without raising taxes necessarily, and so we're thrilled at the opportunity. We've hired an excellent, highly regarded new director, patrick Arnold, to manage it and we're scheduled in September to take some policies to our board. Talk about it in the public and we're thrilled. The Chamber's excited about it.
Speaker 1Oh, yes, very much so. I love that. I like the creativity and thinking outside the box to address problems with creative solutions.
Speaker 3Well, you're kind.
Speaker 1Well, we, as a community, we know how important a thriving, productive school district is to our quality of life, frankly, and it all goes together. So that's what we want to do as a chamber we want to connect our businesses, our resources out there to you all, because it all works together well it really does in partnership and they're all of our children and um they are all our children. They really don't have children anymore. I still have that with the wanda band and I want yes, I do, they're all my kids.
Speaker 3They really are In my neighborhood.
Speaker 1They're my kids.
Speaker 3It's really a moral imperative, it really public education is just a moral imperative and if we're going to be premier here in Charleston, the public school system has to reflect the excellence that the public demands.
Speaker 2Yep, yep, kind of in closing.
Speaker 3Is it already time to wrap up we?
Speaker 2don't have to. I mean it's 20 to 1. I mean we have a good time here. Yeah, we can just keep talking.
Speaker 3Well, look at Michelle, do we need to go? No, I can get to my next destination really quickly.
Speaker 2You were saying that I know, I know.
Speaker 3Well, we won't discuss that.
Speaker 2Buzzwords Leadership is an honor, leading with humility, amplifying student agency those are more than just buzzwords to you, right To me, but I love them. They're great, they're great sounding, but you put them in practice. So what are your priorities as superintendent moving forward this year?
Speaker 3Like what are your top? That's a great question.
Speaker 2With those buzzwords in mind.
Speaker 3So, with those buzzwords in mind, we have a lot of those in education, yeah, but in my heart, leadership matters. It matters and it starts with me. It starts with me and it's important for me to lead by example, and I'm far from perfect, but I believe in kids and I want this system to reflect that heart for kids. But our primary goals this year are really going to be focused on high quality instruction, making sure we're giving teachers the tools in the classroom that they need to be successful and that they're really challenging students, regardless of how those students arrived at their classroom door, to be the best they can be. Second, we really want to be a student-centered, evidence-based system where we're using data in real time to make quick course adjustments when we see that kids aren't getting it. So it's like that old Charlie Brown cartoon where you know Lucy holds the ball and Charlie Brown gets really confused and Lucy tricks him into believing that she's going to hold it and he's going to kick it. It keeps falling right.
Speaker 3Because she always does the same thing. If we know something's not going to work, we need to change it, and that's what student-focused, evidence-based decision-making. And really, lastly, we're focused on building community professional learning communities with our educators that really focus on action and kids, not necessarily adult issues.
Speaker 1You know lots of adult issues creep into business.
Speaker 3They creep in sometimes to churches.
Speaker 1Adult issues creep in everywhere.
AI in Education and Future Initiatives
Speaker 3School boards, indeed, and they creep into schools too. My job is to make sure that the work stays focused on kids.
Speaker 2Yes, love that. And then another hard question here AI Absolutely yeah, Love that. And then another hard question here AI Absolutely, absolutely. What are we doing to benefit our children and what are we doing to safeguard our children?
Speaker 3Well, it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 2It's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3So you know, we have some folks who say we need to block it and some folks say we need to open it all up. I think the answer is really somewhere in the middle. We need to open it all up? I think the answer is really somewhere in the middle. We have to teach kids how to use AI resourcefully, respectfully and to better themselves, and that's what we're doing. We currently have a group dedicated solely to that. They're looking at best practices across the nation and developing systems. For that we plan to engage with our student.
Speaker 3That's one of the first topics on our student cabinet for the fall, and so we're not banning AI, but we are trying to teach kids how to use it responsibly, as we did with everything else along the way that was introduced. That's right, you know, back to when we were kids way back when, in the Stone Ages right, we had to learn how to use computers and the Internet.
Speaker 2Typing typewriters, social media all things.
Speaker 3So really it's incumbent upon us to get kids ready, because colleges aren't banning AI. They have systems around it and honor codes around it, but they're trying to teach their college students how to responsibly use it, and that's really important for us.
Speaker 2I love that you have a committee.
Speaker 3We do.
Speaker 2Of pros looking into dedicated to that. I think every institution needs one, it's very forward thinking Well, we try.
Speaker 3Last week we had our Charleston Educator Symposium it was really the kickoff to our 25-26 school year and we had several sessions dedicated to AI where we listened to feedback and we provided systems and guidelines and sort of guardrails around how we're moving forward.
Speaker 2Love it. Good answer.
Speaker 3I did the best I could, Mike.
Speaker 2This is your interview now I don't normally take over interviews but, okay. Real quick recruitment-wise like myself, people like professionals that want to have another career.
Speaker 3Absolutely.
Speaker 2There's a CTE program that's out there, because I don't have a teaching certificate right. So, there's other programs out there that we could.
Speaker 3Mike, we're going to never stop this interview.
Speaker 2This is fantastic, so I want the public to know that all of our classrooms are full we never do that in Charleston but it, so I want the public to know that all of our classrooms are full. We never do that in Charleston, but it's the second year we've done it in a row. When you say that, what does that mean?
Speaker 3That means everybody has a certified teacher in the classroom.
Speaker 2So that blew my mind Because I thought that was an assuming thing. But it's not.
Speaker 3There's a national teacher shortage and up until the last two years We've never started the school year With all of our classrooms filled and they're filled. Part of that's due, I think, part of it due to our pay raises for teachers which we start teachers now at $65,000. We've also tried to improve the quality of work. We offer employee daycare, Jason Sims. In fact we've expanded to Mount Pleasant this year. It's already in North Charleston, West Ashley. That's wonderful. Yes, I did not know that we In North Charleston West Ashley, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1Yes, I did not know that we have employee daycare.
Speaker 3How brilliant is that we are expanding Every year To a different area. But, mike, we also have Our. We have the most Grow your own Educator programs Of any district In South Carolina. So we have a Teach Charleston program. Yep, heard about that, we're by people like you who are professionals.
Speaker 2Right, smarter than me, I got a 2.3 and a 2.75 to get into that. Stop telling all your secrets on the air. My goodness, don't be telling all that.
Speaker 3But you. There's an alternate route certification whereby you can attain certification.
Speaker 2PACE program. Yep CTE program.
Speaker 3But Teach Charleston is our homegrown sort of PACE, which was the state's and still is the state's and still is the state's alternative route. So we have lots of different routes. If you're interested, if you love kids, you want to do the right thing by kids and you want to be part of a premier system, let us know that interest and we can help get you connected All right.
Speaker 1That's wonderful, Including you.
Speaker 3Mike. Hey all right, I'm in.
Speaker 2Even with a 2, would you say it was a two, three, something like two, five, like that a little bit. You do also have volunteer programs going out there, don't you? Um, with the school district like this one coming up this Saturday for serving the unhoused and underserved event. That's really cool, that you guys keep doing that type of stuff for the community.
Speaker 3We do. We have a homeless population that impacts hundreds of children in the Charleston County School District, and so Saturday's event is one outreach where we really try to give back. We realize that we're blessed. Many of us are very, very blessed, and so, again, it's somewhat of our moral obligation to give back and to help wraparound families that need it the most so they can be the best for their kids, because nobody ever had a kid and said said, I don't want to serve them. Well, like that's really not yeah in our dna.
Speaker 3We want to do the right thing. Everybody's just not always able. So we're here to provide help as we can love it.
Speaker 2You're doing the right thing. We're trying to appreciate you, absolutely appreciate you. Go back to work, though actually I do need to go back to work I do need to go back to work.
Speaker 3I've got a lot of things to do. I think I've got 49 emails sitting here. I'm just saying. But it's great to see you.
Speaker 2Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 1Thank you too, rebecca. Thank you, it was a wonderful conversation.
Speaker 3I appreciate you having me I really do and I appreciate your commitment to our kids. It's going to take all of us together and I hope those listening today will really embrace that.
